Rebel with a Cause

Florian Pronold is German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's worst nightmare: a telegenic 30-year-old helping to lead a popular backlash against Schröder's proposals for economic reform. What makes this dream especially bad is that Pronold isn't a member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union. He's a rising star in Schröder's own party, the Social Democrats (SPD). "We're not against Schröder personally, but we're against his political course," Pronold says. "This is not a Social Democratic policy."

Pronold is one of 12 SPD backbenchers trying to scupper Schröder's latest batch of reform proposals. While some of the opponents are long-serving party leftists like...